CRYSTALLIZATION-STUDY OF FIRST AND SECOND KINGS
Message Four
Solomon's Splendid Kingdom Typifying Christ's Kingdom in the Millennium
Scripture Reading: 1 Kings 10:1-24; Psa. 72:1-8, 11, 17-19; Rev. 11:15; 20:4, 6
I. Solomon's splendid kingdom, with his prosperity under the rich blessing of God, is a type of Christ's kingdom in the millennium—1 Kings 4:20—5:18:
A. Chapters 9 and 10 in 1 Kings portray the highest peak of Solomon's glory among the nations.
B. Solomon was glorified in the kingdom of Israel with the splendor of his kingdom; this is a prefigure of Christ in the millennium—vv. 1-24.
II. At His second coming Christ will take possession of the earth, which has been given to Him as His possession, and will establish God's kingdom on the whole earth, thus recovering God's right over the earth—Psa. 24:1:
A. Psalm 24:7-10 unveils the victorious Christ as the coming King in God's eternal kingdom.
B. Jehovah is Jesus, and Jesus is the incarnated, crucified, and resurrected Triune God, who is strong in fighting and is victorious—Rev. 5:5.
C. He is the One who will come back in His resurrection with His overcomers to possess the earth as His kingdom—Dan. 2:34-35; 7:13-14; Joel 3:11; Rev. 11:15; 19:13-14.
III. Psalm 72 is on the reigning Christ, typified by the reigning Solomon:
A. Psalm 72 is actually a psalm on King Solomon, who is a type of Christ as the reigning One—Matt. 12:42:
1. Christ as the son of David is the One who inherits the throne and kingdom of David—1:1; 2 Sam. 7:12-13; Luke 1:32-33.
2. After His life of suffering on earth, typified by the sufferings of David, Christ ascended to the heavens, where He is now reigning as the King, typified by Solomon—1 Cor. 15:25; Rev. 17:14.
B. The reigning Christ is typified in Psalm 72 by the reigning Solomon (Matt. 1:1; 22:42) in his prosperous and flourishing time (1 Kings 9—10), as indicated by the title of this psalm and by the first verse:
1. Psalm 72 reveals Christ reigning over the earth, with all the kings bowing down to Him and all the nations serving Him—vv. 1-8, 11.
2. Psalm 72 is a glorious picture of what it will be like for the Lord to recover, possess, and reign over the whole earth—vv. 17-19.
3. The reign of Christ, typified by Solomon, will be in the millennium in the age of restoration—Rev. 20:4, 6; Matt. 19:28.
IV. "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He will reign forever and ever"—Rev. 11:15:
A. The kingdom of Christ is the millennium; it is also the kingdom of God—20:4, 6; Matt. 16:28; 13:41, 43.
B. In the aspect of the kingdom as the kingdom of Christ and of God, Christ reigns with God; we may also say that Christ reigns as God—Rev. 11:15.
C. The kingdom of the world becomes the kingdom of Christ at His coming back after He executes His judgment upon the nations—Dan. 7:13-14; 2:44-45.
D. In Revelation 11:15 the Lord's reigning forever and ever is the Lord's reigning in the millennial kingdom and in the new heaven and new earth for eternity—22:5.
E. All the overcomers will reign with Christ for a thousand years, and all the saved ones will reign forever and ever in eternity—20:4, 6; 22:5.
V. After the Lord Jesus deals with the believers, the Jews, and the nations, He will bring in the millennium—the kingdom of Christ and of God on earth for a thousand years—20:4, 6:
A. The millennium refers to the time after Christ comes again as King to rule the world and before the new heaven and new earth.
B. During the millennium all the nations will come to Christ—Zech. 14:16.
C. In the Old Testament there are many verses concerning the millennial kingdom—Psa. 2:6, 8-9; Isa. 2:2-5; 11:1-10; 65:20-25; Zech. 8:20-23; 14:16-21.
D. In Acts 3:21 the times of the restoration of all things refers to the millennium:
1. This restoration will affect not only man but also the entire universe—the heavens, the earth, the animals, and even the trees.
2. Everything that was cursed through the fall of man will be restored—Isa. 11:6; 30:26.
E. The millennium will still be used by God as an age of preparation:
1. During this age God will perfect the saints who have not been perfected during the age of the church so that they may be qualified to enter into the New Jerusalem for God's eternal kingdom.
2. During the millennium God will also purify the restored nations to be the people on the new earth.
F. The believers in Christ the Son of God have been regenerated into the kingdom of God, and they are in the church life, living in the kingdom of God today, but not all believers, only the overcoming ones, will participate in the millennium—John 3:5, 15-16; Rom. 14:17; Rev. 12:10-11; 2:26-27; 3:21.
VI. What is described in Matthew 16:28—17:5 is a miniature of the manifestation of the kingdom of the heavens in the millennium:
A. The center of this miniature is the glorified Jesus, and with Him are Moses and Elijah, representing the Old Testament overcomers, and Peter, James, and John, representing the New Testament overcomers—vv. 1-3.
B. On the mountain with the Lord Jesus, Peter, James, and John had a foretaste of the coming manifestation of the kingdom—16:28—17:3.
C. For the Lord Jesus to be transfigured means that His humanity was saturated and permeated with His divinity; this transfiguration was His glorification—v. 2:
1. The transfiguration, the shining, of the Lord Jesus was His coming in His kingdom; where His transfiguration is, there is the coming of the kingdom—Mark 9:1-4; Luke 9:27-31.
2. The transfiguration of the Lord Jesus was the realization of what He is.
3. The kingdom is the shining of the reality of the Lord Jesus; to be under His shining is to be in the kingdom—Rev. 22:4-5.
4. In the millennium the overcoming believers will be with Christ in the bright glory of the kingdom: "then the righteous will shine forth like the sun in the kingdom of their Father"—Matt. 13:43a and footnotes 1 and 2.